There are two types of children – those who scoff all of their eggs before lunch time on Easter Sunday and then go into a sugar comedown for the rest of the bank holiday weekend. And then there are those who open one box at a time, carefully break off a small piece of chocolate, put the rest of the egg back in its box and replace it on the shelf, in line with at least half a dozen others. And you can guarantee there will still be some left on this shelf in September.

I very much fell into the former category as a child… oh, who am I kidding? As an adult too. So if you have kids who behaved like I did/do, this post might not be for you. You’re probably glad to see the back of the chocolate eggs and are refusing all confectionary requests until Christmas.

But, if you’ve got a glut knocking about the place, maybe think about doing something slightly less Eastery with them… you know how wrong it feels when you pull a Christmas cracker after Boxing Day? Well, I reckon the same feeling can be applied to the consumption of Easter eggs. They are very much of the moment and eating any egg-shaped chocolate after the bank holiday is just plain WRONG.

But panic not, I’m not advocating throwing away the lovely chocolate – what sort of mad person do you take me for? No, I’m merely suggesting something a little bit more creative… So, you’ve still got a few days to spare until they go back to school. If it’s slightly nippy out, a spot of baking might be the order of the day – but why spend extra money on more chocolate for your rice crispy cakes or chocolate fondant icing when you can use up those extra eggs and melt them down? Instead of buying chocolate chips for cookies, take great satisfaction in using a rolling pin on those eggs and smash them up into small bits. Heck, this sounds like a great activity in itself. Forget Easter egg hunts – Easter egg smashing is the way forward. And once you’ve produced your masterpieces, put any leftovers to good use as decorations.

But that’s not all – here’s another idea – for an entirely non-food related activity, you can use the pretty foil wrappers for mad collages once you’re completely baked out. That’s a whole day’s worth of entertainment from a few leftover seasonal treats. And let’s face it, Easter eggs are a bit overpriced in the first place, so you might as well squeeze as much fun as you can out of them.

Remember, chocolate eggs and bunnies ARE just for Easter, so persuade that not-so-greedy child of yours to relinquish some of their prized collection for the greater good – your school holiday sanity and your wallet. There are no greater causes than these.